OCR Text |
Show assignments and uniforms, so that during much of the class Kim could do what she wanted. Some of the girls went outside and sat on the playing field, but Kim wandered onto the basketball court where she found a leather basketball lying in one corner. She bounced the ball on the shiney floor several times as if it were an old friend. Then she tossed it casually from the foul line into the basket. Swoosh. For several minutes she practiced jump shots from around the key until she noticed a small group of girls who had gathered on the sidelines to watch her. Flattered by their interest, she ran into the basket for a lay-up, and smiled inwardly as the ball cleared the net and swished through the hoop. Again and again she practiced lay-ups, first from the right side of the basket, and then from the left, until finally the bell rang ending the period. It was a little thing, to have a few girls admire her playing basketball, but it was the only thing anyone had noticed her do all day long. At three o'clock, she made her way to a mirror clean van with two other freshmen in her class, Isabel Dobson and Maureen Swift, who were also going to the Academy. It felt good to be leaving the school for the outside world. Although she had only been at the school for two days, she'd had the weird sensation of being caged in some kind of women's 23 |